In recent years, a substrate processing apparatus has been used to perform various types of types of processes on a substrate, such as a semiconductor wafer. The substrate processing apparatus includes, for example, a polishing unit for performing substrate polishing processing, a cleaning unit for performing substrate cleaning processing and drying processing, and a loading/unloading unit for performing substrate transport processing.
The polishing unit, the cleaning unit, and the loading/unloading unit are manufactured independently of one another. After the plurality of units are assembled into the substrate processing apparatus, the substrate processing apparatus generally performs a series of processes on a substrate with the substrate transferred between the plurality of units. That is, the loading/unloading unit loads (passes) a substrate to be processed into (to) the polishing unit. The polishing unit performs polishing processing on the substrate loaded by the loading/unloading unit. The cleaning unit receives the substrate subjected to the polishing processing by the polishing unit and performs cleaning processing and drying processing. The loading/unloading unit unloads (receives) the substrate dried by the cleaning unit.
It is common for a substrate processing apparatus not to start full-scale operation shortly after assembly of a plurality of units into the substrate processing apparatus but to first perform startup work (test operation) of the substrate processing apparatus. Examples of the startup work include a test of whether processing is appropriately performed in each unit and a test of whether transfer of a substrate is appropriately performed between a plurality of units.